Quotes & Quips

By Jack Nichols Worms R Us "Because worms and humans have turned out to share many genes in common, the worm genome is regarded by biologists as an essential basis for understanding how the human genome works. "In the last 10 years we have come to realize humans are more like worms than we ever imagined." Dr. Bruce Alberts, President of the National Academy of Sciences – in the New York Times, Dec. 11 Newsweek's Primary Shepard News Source: Tom O'Connor, Limo Driver …Two of the limousine driver's other frequent passengers were McKinney and Henderson, the two men charged with Shepard's murder. The three men were friends, and McKinney and his girlfriend and their young son had recently lived rent-free in an apartment O'Connor owns. Despite O'Connor's affection for Shepard and his horror at the murder, he is still fond of the men accused of killing him and believes the death was robbery gone wrong, not a premeditated hate-crime." Mark Miller—"The Final Days and Nights of a Gay Martyr"—Newsweek, December 21 Good Taste in Men "Yeah, I'd date me." Brad Pitt-- asked if he considered himself a hunk – Newsweek, Dec. 7 But What About Lesbians? "The male's function is to shoot semen as often as possible into as many women (or attractive surrogates) as possible, while the female's function is to be shot briefly' by Wolf Blitzer…no no no, by a male, any male, in order to fertilize an egg, which she will lay nine months later. " Gore Vidal –"Birds & Bees & Clinton"—The Nation, Dec. 28 Naked in Front of the Bathroom Mirror "When you deny something so fundamental about yourself, put it in storage, thinking it will be there forever, it sometimes slips out unexpectedly in funny ways. It can make you act strangely. Maybe it makes you sleepwalk through life a little. When you are living someone else's life, is it possible to accidentally spend $30 million in a campaign you don't want to win?…On his wedding night, as Arianna waited for him in the next room, Mike stood naked in front of the bathroom mirror staring at the ring on his finger." David Brock—"The Strange Odyssey of Michael Huffington"—Esquire, Jan. 1999 Gossip: Oral Sex for Bad Backs "This was the Year the Government became the Gossips… "It got right in there, and then— as if to gluttonously complete the monopoly that the Federal Government had once denied other entertainment providers like movie studios and broadcasters—it completed the circuit by distributing the scandal itself on the Internet. A public sector scandal: produced, reported by, starring and distributed by the judicial, legislative and executive branches of the United States Government! "Trust this gossip columnist, they did a scary job. A little light on the alliteration, heavy on the breast imagery, but hey, gossip is about details, and the Ken Starr report has them in big sloppy buckets. Cigars...Altoids…bodily fluids…the President's oral sex position for a bad back." Frank DiGiacomo—"The Government Goes Gossip Crazy"—New York Observer, Dec. 21 Gay Historian Praises Another Gay Historian The most unjustly neglected nonfiction book of 1998 is John Loughery's The Other Side of Silence, a monumental work of American history….If a book this good had been written about women or Jews or African-Americans, The New York Times would have put it on the front page of the Sunday book review, every major American daily would have noticed it, feature writers would have flocked to interview the author, and he would have been ubiquitous on Today and the rest of the serious talk shows. Charles Kaiser, author of The Gay Metropolis, about John Loughery's The Other Side of Silence—The New York Observer-- Dec. 21 The Diva He Always Wanted to Be Sean Hayes Here's a primer on Will & Grace: the NBC sitcom is about the friendship between a gay man (lawyer Will) and a straight woman (interior decorator Grace), and while the family values brigade has greeted the show with surprising silencce, critics and viewers have gone crazy over its sidesplitting sidekicks. As Will's other best friend, Jack, 28-year-old Sean Hayes provides a smartly rendered flamboyance (his comic skills turn a gay male stereotype into a stitch); as Grace's rich-bitch assistant Karen, Megan Mullally, 40, can steal a scene with a sneer. Put Hayes and Mullally together and you have the most potent comic duo since Burns and Allen (or at least since Jerry and Elaine). "There's a flirtatious quality to their relationship,"says Mullally, a Broadway musical vet. "I'm the diva he always wanted to be." JC—Entertainment Weekly—Dec. 25, 1998 Your Path is One of the Threads You cannot attain unity until you have established individuality and vice versa. Following the herd does not unite us with that herd, especially when it is our fear of separation that inspires this behavior. When we fear separation we are perpetuating its existence. However, when we know no separation from the core, and therefore the whole of all life, we are free to follow our own path, knowing that it is one of the threads woven into the pattern of mankind's evolving journey. Victoria Lynn Hall—"Individualism and the Path to Unity"— Paradox, Jan., 1999 Courts Curtsey Before The Military "The courts seem poised to become the third and final branch of government to have shirked responsibility over the issue of gays in the military. By handing over decision-making power to a small minority of military men and their supporters, the courts have failed to exercise their constitutional duty to ensure that providing for the common defense does not trump the laws, rights and ideals being defended. This is troubling because the policy that has emerged is deeply flawed and, most significantly, because it is a cardinal principle of democracy that civilian authorities should control the unelected military." Nathaniel Frank—'Military Coup"—The New Republic—Jan. 4, 1999

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